page_title: Horace Tabor
section_title: Stonemason and storekeeper
hierarchical_section_title: Horace Tabor / Biography / Stonemason and storekeeper
caption_attribution_description: English: Augusta Pierce Tabor
context_page_description: Horace Austin Warner Tabor, also known as The Bonanza King of Leadville, was an American prospector, businessman, and Republican politician. His life is the subject of Douglas Moore's opera, The Ballad of Baby Doe; and the 1932 Hollywood biographical movie:
  Silver Dollar. Also, Graham Masterton's 1987 novel Silver has a protagonist named Henry T. Roberts, whose life includes incidents from Tabor's.
context_section_description: When he was finished training as a stonemason, Tabor left home at age 19 to work the quarries of Maine and Massachusetts.  In 1855, he departed for the Kansas Territory with the New England Emigrant Aid Company to populate that territory with anti-slavery settlers.  There he farmed land along Deep Creek in Riley County, near Manhattan, Kansas (known today as Tabor Valley).  In January 1856, Tabor was elected to the Free-State Topeka Legislature, but that body was soon dispersed by President Franklin Pierce in favor of the pro-slavery legislature that had been elected under the influence of "Border Ruffians" from Missouri.
  In 1857, Tabor returned briefly to Maine to marry Augusta Pierce, daughter of his former employer, William B. Pierce, then returned with her to Riley County.  In 1859, as rumors of gold began to spread, the couple moved west with the "Fifty-Niners" to Denver (still in Kansas Territory at the time).  The Tabors arrived in Buckskin Joe, Colorado, in 1861 to operate a store. In a few months they relocated to the Oro City area where Horace sought gold. Then they moved to Leadville. Augusta Tabor recorded in her journal her first impression of the South Park area while they were headed to Leadville: "I shall never forget my first vision of the park. I can only describe it by saying it was one of Colorado's sunsets. Those who have seen them know how glorious they are."
  After the Tabors lived a year in Leadville, placer mining declined, and the couple returned to Buckskin Joe, where they remained until 1868. He was postmaster in Buckskin Joe from 1863 to 1868; Augusta apparently handled most of those duties and took in boarders and laundry, while Horace prospected in the mines. In 1868, the Tabors returned once more to Leadville to resume storekeeping. Tabor also continued prospecting while also engaging in business and politics. The couple ran Leadville's general store and postal system and, following his election on January 26, 1878, Tabor served as mayor of Leadville for one year. It was Mayor Tabor who first hired lawman Mart Duggan, who is credited with finally bringing Leadville's violent crime rate under control.
caption: Augusta Pierce Tabor
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